Wednesday, March 25, 2009

So I've been doing a lot of work with packaging this week. I can't spoil which game just yet, but I will tell you that the process is a bit crazier than I had at first imagined. There is so much to be done. Copy and color proofing, print matching, fact-checking, and tons more. My job has mostly been to check for errors and provide feedback on the overall design and layout. I work directly with our illustrators to help create the best possible look for this product. And I've got to say that I've had a great deal of help, and of course a bit of inspiration (see below.)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Today there were some inter-office emails sent around that linked to a discussion on women and technology. The article was written from a panel at South by Southwest, a convention celebrating film, music, and other entertainment and artistic mediums. The panel was speaking about how females get into technological fields by first playing video games and becoming interested in their creation. The report was pretty cool, but one of the best things was that Megan Gaiser, our president, got to speak about HI! I can't include the link, but here's an excerpt of what was written,

Megan Gaiser, president and CEO of Her Interactive (publisher of the popular game titles) gave a brief genesis of her company, explaining that publishers initially didn't want to market or develop games for women. "Since they wouldn't let us in the front door, we went around to the back door and starting learning how to sell directly on Amazon." They began turning a profit in 2002 after hiring a retail consultant and moving towards self-publishing, thus earning Nancy Drew the title of "The UnBarbie of Computer Games."

Gaiser pointed out, "Creativity is the great equalizer," and spoke about welcoming more women into the games industry. "It takes the balance of both genders to create unique and diversified content."[www.joystiq.com, SXSW 2009: Gaming as a Gateway Drug: Getting Girls Interested in Technology, Kevin Kelly]

I think that's a pretty amazing statement, and it certainly represents something I believe whole-heartedly in.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

I always thought it was pretty amazing that such a small company would be able to produce and translate their games to so many languages. It's great to think about people all over the globe playing the same game... and probably getting stuck on the same puzzle. :P

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

If you read Friday's blog about burgers, then I'm sure you'll understand the need for some of the office to get up and get moving. Another fun office tradition is to play a bit of hacky-sack for exercise (and a nice healthy break, weather permitting.) It's been an office staple for much longer than I've been here, and the artists absolutely love the excuse to get outside and unwind for a bit. Enjoying the sun is my favorite part, particularly with the silly Seattle weather we've been having. So what kind of activities do you all do to keep the mind and body sharp?

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Did you remember to wear green today? There have been a couple "pinchers" around the office on the prowl, but thankfully I’m in suitable fashion. I did manage to stumble upon an interesting item I thought I’d share with you all today (given its obvious context with the holiday.)

This is a keychain passed around the office as a promotion for the release of Nancy Drew®: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. Not only does the marketing team reach out to you guys, but sometimes they like to build a bit of anticipation within the office too. There were some masks floating around the office during the Phantom of Venice release, and Mardi Gras beads when Legend of the Crystal Skull launched. I think it’s pretty cool that the office has a kind of “pep rally” for its workers.

I wonder what we’ll see when Ransom of the Seven Ships gets released… ohhhh the anticipation.

Today I was invited to go to lunch with a group of co-workers. They have an outing every Friday, in a ritual they dubiously dubbed, "Burger Fridays." The tradition was originally established as a way to rate various burger joints in the surrounding area, but these cool cats have slowly turned it into an all-office event.

These days, they have an open invitation and choose the lunch spot through discussion each Friday (now not necessarily a burger shop.) In addition, the Friday lunch crew is about as diverse as the office could get; Artists, Programmers, Writers, and more. It's a good time for each of the departments to swap stories and socialize.

Community is something HI prides itself on, and it's always nice to see such a motley bunch bond over burgers and fries. Count me in next week.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

In some form of shameless promotion, designer Mari and I have combined forces to create a dreadfully difficult weekend puzzle. I thought I'd give everyone the heads up, as the clues to this puzzle are going to be found in next week's newsletter (hence the "shameless promotion"). You can sign up for the HI newsletter on the main page (www.HerInteractive.com).

The newsletter is going to have some pretty excellent content in it this month (I've seen a sneak preview) and should be published on Monday or Tuesday. The special "Newsletter Puzzle" will be released next Friday, March 20th.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Hello. Hello. I’m Ian, or Novel_Sleuth, and I’ll be blogging with you today. Brandon, our blog-meister for the past few months, has now departed for greater adventures, and we wish him the best in Japan. I’ll be providing the content in his absence. But don’t worry, all the great material will keep on coming, plus maybe a few surprises along the way. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime I’ll give just a short introduction for myself.

I’ve been working at HI for almost 2 years now, and yes, it is as fun as it sounds. I’m an avid reader, writer, and gamer. I love movies but don't really watch TV. I like puzzles and enigmatic titles. And coincidentally I started this job just like Brandon, as an intern (no Amateur Sleuth blog back then though >.< ) I suppose that’s enough for now, on to business!

I’ve received a few requests to hold off on posting the Weekend Puzzle answers so quickly. I’m thinking of waiting until Tuesday or Wednesday… or is everyone too anxious for an answer?

I use a nifty little program called Google Analytics to see the viewer traffic for this blog and it shows some pretty interesting information. Like say, there are readers from 6 of the 7 continents! Nancy Drew fans worldwide!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Hi everyone, I am sorry to say that my internship period at HerInteractive ends tomorrow.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working at HerInteractive, and writing for the Amateur Sleuth Blog has become one of my favorite day-to-day activities. I hope that you fans continue to stay up-to-date on many of the fun things that we have going on at HI through this page, the Dare to Play blog and our new Twitter!

I am now off to Tokyo, Japan, where I will be studying abroad for a semester – learning the Japanese language, taking in the city sights, and hopefully eating lots and lots of sushi :)

After Friday, our new writer will be Ian – serving the same ole’ AS juice that you thirst for. There shouldn’t be too many changes, and I think that the Weekend Puzzle may become a mainstay (to keep all of you sleuths on check in between games!)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

QA Lead Nora is in charge of all of the testing that goes on at HI, here’s a great explanation into what exactly ‘testing’ is:

Here at Her Interactive, we’re obsessed with perfection. Before we release a game into the wild, we want to make sure that every detail is in place. The diverse backgrounds of our team members really come in handy here—we’ve got art history experts who can comment on architecture, a master birder who can tell us whether those bird sounds are realistic for the part of the world in which our game is set, and plenty of science and technology buffs. But what about the nuts-and-bolts stuff, like making sure the game works on the types of computers our players use, and making sure there aren’t any crashes or other technical problems? Well, that’s where the QA team comes in.

QA stands for “Quality Assurance”, and that’s also a pretty good description of our goal: we want to make sure that our games are as high-quality as they can be in every aspect. The QA team here at HI consists of the QA Lead (that’s me), and of testers. Here’s a picture of our hardware lab, where the testers work on a variety of different PCs:

While testing can be a really exciting job, it’s more than just playing games. Testers complete “test passes”, where they examine every detail of a certain aspect of a game. For example, today one of our testers is working on a conversation pass, where she’ll check every possible conversation option in the game against the script to make sure that the sound is working correctly, that choosing each line of dialogue leads to the correct scene, and more. Within each test pass are “test cases”, specific items like “see what happens if you complete a puzzle but try to back out before picking up the item you’ve won”.

There’s even more to testing, like automation (see what happens when you use a special program to automatically play a certain puzzle 100 times in a row or to get a really high score, for example), but that’s probably a topic for another post!

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Thanks Nora! :)

Hey Sluethers, have anyone of you tried a “test pass” any ND game before?